ENGLISH

8/19/15 “The Sunagawa Ruling, the Japanese Government’s Pretext for Allowing the Collective Self-Defense, Was Ordered by the US”

2015年09月18日

Taro Yamamoto: This is Taro Yamamoto representing The People’s Life Party & Taro Yamamoto and Friends.

I would like to continue questioning the obvious, the topic we all know in Nagatacho but we never discuss. This time, I would like to introduce another “request” by the US.

The image panel please. (The image shown)

This panel shows material indicating the Supreme Court ruling on the Sunagawa incident, which became the legal precedent for allowing the Self-Defense Force to participate in collective self defense with the US, was made according to a request, an order, by the US. It was quoted from the homepage of professor Asaho Mizushima, a constitutional scholar from Waseda University, with his permission.

(Chairman leaves his seat and director Masahisa Sato takes his seat)

In the Sunagawa ruling, though it might be redundant to describe it to you, in 1959, after the unconstitutional ruling was handed on March 30th against the US military base presence in Japan at the Tokyo District Court , the defense directly appealed to the Supreme Court, stepping over the District Court, in order to avoid affecting the new national security bill being negotiated at the time. It’s called chouyakujyoukoku (direct appeal to the supreme court). These chouyakujyoukoku cases are extremely rare, and this case is even rarer, there are only three cases including the Sunagawa incident in which it was initiated by the prosecutor. Moreover it was a request by the US.

On March 30th, 1959, the day after the unconstitutional ruling by the Tokyo District Court against the US Military presence was handed, at 8 o’clock in the morning, the US Ambassador Douglas MacArthur II–as you all know, this is the nephew of General MacArthur — General Headquarters, the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers–had met the Foreign Minister Aiichiro Fujiyama to inform that it is critical that the Japanese government act urgently to correct the District Court ruling and stressed the importance of directly appealing to the Supreme Court.

In turn, Foreign Minister Fujiyama said that he would like to recommend to permit the appeal in the Diet session starting right away at 9:00am in the same morning

Three days later, on 4/3, the prosecutor directly appealed to the Supreme Court.

Then, three weeks later, on 4/24, then Supreme Court Chief Justice Koutaro Tanaka reported to Ambassador MacArthur that according to Japanese law, it will take at least a few months to reach the verdict. Just this very fact tells the state of the Japanese Supreme Court. Why would he go all the way to make a report on such a thing, isn’t that odd?

But the major surprise comes after that.

This panel, you all probably know what it is already. (Someone speaks) Yes, that’s right, someone just said “telegram”.

It is from three months later, on July 31st, the image came from professor Asaho Mizushima’s home page, and it was made available as a result of the Freedom of Information Act request for the US National Archives by the former professor of Yamanashi Gakuin University Reiko Yukawa. It’s an official telegram from the Embassy of the US in Tokyo to the Japanese Secretary of State, it reports the content of the story told by the Supreme Court Chief Justice Tanaka to the Deputy Chief of Mission William Leonhart, it’s a copy of it, and what I just showed you is the content.

Let me ask you, did you know of the existence of this document? Starting from the Foreign Minister please. I am sorry that it is an unannounced question, I apologize.

Foreign Minister (Fumio Kishida): There have been many official documents being disclosed in the US. My understanding is that the US generally refrains from commenting on them as well. We consider that, as the Japanese government, commenting on those documents individually would not be appropriate.

Taro Yamamoto: So you knew the existence of the document, is that right?

Foreign Minister (Fumio Kishida): It has been indicated by some, along with the aforementioned document, that the Sunagawa incident was negotiated between Japan and the US during the screening process. Regarding the allegation, we do not consider that there has been such a negotiation. I do not think that your assessment that the direct appeal of the Sunagawa incident case to the Supreme Court was due to the request of the US is a correct one.

The document from March 31st was also brought up during a Committee of the House of Representatives. We have reported that the Ministry of Foreign Affaires of Japan has conducted a reconfirmation process for the document, however, our record has shown that there is no such document existing in our archives.

Taro Yamamoto: You are saying that there was no negotiation, and the US did not pressure for the direct appeal to the Supreme Court, but, the main point really should be that there is no such document probably means that they just threw it away. Cause it came out of the US National Archive. From the US Embassy official to the Japanese Secretary of State. The content of the conversation between the Deputy Chief of Mission and Director Tanaka is noted here, right?

So the content, what was the content, it was like this. The Chief Supreme Court Justice Kotaro Tanaka told the Deputy Chief of Mission William Leonhart that the verdict for the Sunagawa incident will be out by December and he is determined to place the focus, the focus of the litigation I assume, to be a legal issue instead of the issue of facts, the hearing will begin during the beginning of September and be conducted twice a week, he believes that if he opens the Court in the morning as well as in the afternoon, he can finish it in three weeks, and, he stated that he hopes the agreement at the Supreme Court will bring about a virtual unanimity in order to avoid the minority opinions, which can disrupt the public opinion.

Some of you who are watching the streaming on the internet might be a little confused what was being said, basically, the Chief Supreme Court Justice had highly accurate info and he himself decided to share it with the US. He utilized his position to the maximum , with tender loving care in colluding with the US in obtaining a necessary verdict all for the sake of realizing the Japan-US Security Treaty.

It’s the extraordinary story of the Japanese Supreme Court showing an extraordinary loyalty to US political manipulation, the legendary loyal dog Hachiko would be very proud. And it’s right out of the US National Archive. It’s written right here. Isn’t it just appalling that you just deny it, YOU DO NOT KNOW? You just say that there has been no fact like that in a matter of fact manner, that is how you answered.

And as the Chief Justice Tanaka predicted, on December 16th, 1959, with a unanimous decision of the 15 judges, Justice Tanaka handed the Sunagawa verdict himself ruling that the US bases on Japanese soil is constitutional. By this verdict, the Tokyo District Court’s verdict ruling that the US bases were unconstitutional, so called Date verdict, was scrapped.

Really, as we hear so far, it remind me of Noble laureate in physics Shuji Nakamura stating that the Japanese judiciary is rotten, we’ve heard words like that often. The fact that the Chief Supreme Justice himself took action in lightening speed to present what the US wishes demonstrates that the Japanese judiciary has been rotting for a while. The Sunagawa verdict indicates that the independence of the judiciary in Japan is just a fantasy and it was a rotten verdict by those who were desperate for self-preservation.

Foreign Minister Kishida, I’ve already asked you at the beginning. I’d like to ask again. I want to ask just the part that applies here, this Sunagawa verdict, did you have the knowledge that the direct appeal of it was suggested by the US?

Foreign Minister (Fumio Kishida): First, regarding the Sunagawa verdict, we have no confirmation of an existing document indicating the US involvement.

(The Director Masahisa Sato leaves his seat, The Chairman takes his seat)

And, in addition, there was a mention on the exchange between the Supreme Court and the Embassy of the US in Tokyo. Since it was an exchange between the Supreme Court and the Embassy of the US in Tokyo, I am not certain if it is appropriate for me to comment, however, as far as I know, I believe that on May 9th, 2013, there was a deliberation at the Upper House Legal Affairs Committee stating that there was no documentation of indicated exchange in the Supreme Court.

Taro Yamamoto: So, really, the truth about this nation is only available through disclosed information from overseas, right? The thing is that when the State Secret law goes into effect it will get even worse, I think.

The Sunagawa verdict, which the government and the governmental party regard as the basis for allowing the collective self-defense, does not state anything about allowing the collective self-defense, does it? The argument of the government and the governmental party makes no sense, it can’t be trusted and it is just incomprehensible from any point of view. And the Sunagawa verdict, the Sunagawa verdict itself is such a fraudulent piece of work made by the demand of the US, forced through the direct appeal process by the request, demand and order of the US. What I am saying is that it is not convincing at all to have such a rotten verdict as a basis, especially, when it doesn’t even talk about the very topic at all, in insisting that the act of collective self-defense is constitutional.

Professor Asaho Mizushima has noted that, the day after the verdict, Ambassador MacArthur had congratulated the Chief Justice Tanaka’s skill and statesmanship. He said “statesmanship”, what does “statesmanship” mean? Does selling his soul and striving to be as useful as possible mean having good statesmanship? The thing is that there certainly is a force that sells its soul, engages in spy activities and has turned the Sunagawa verdict over.

How could we put our faith in such a verdict? By the way, The Rockfeller Foundation was very intimate with Chief Justice Tanaka, inviting him to the US, helping him to build a network. We can not possibly trust the Sunagawa verdict.

And, as the Japanese government itself admits, provisions of ammunitions, refueling aircrafts during start-up preparation for combat maneuvers and maintenance, which were all unconstitutional, have been deemed not unconstitutional, changing the interpretation of the Constitution, saying it’s not the same as joining military actions, this, also, was because of the needs and request by the US, right?

The government just jumps on any request, but none of the needs for the people who live in the nation are heard, but , it comes up with a myriad of creative ways to forward the demands by Mr. America, the US military or the multinational corporations.

So what’s America’s need regarding these bills. It’s rebalancing. What do they mean? They are talking about shouldering America’s burden.

I have a copy of Stars and Strips news paper from May 13th, 2015. What does it say? The US defense budget already takes Japan’s new Self-Defense measure into consideration. The latest figure for the 2016 US budget already assumes that the new bills being pushed by the Japanese government will be enacted to provide defense for the allied nation. So, the US reduced the numbers of military personal by 40,000. Not only that. The latest defense budget clearly shows reduction. The one who shoulders the burden, that’s Japan.

Moreover, you’ve heard of the publication “Foreign Policy”, right? The prestigious US foreign policy research magazine, Foreign Policy, had an article titled: Japan’s Expanding Military Role Could Be Good News for the Pentagon and its Contractors. What’s that all about? It says that it doesn’t cost a penny and it makes tons of money. Who’s making money? The Japanese government can buy a bunch of new equipment. And that is very good for the US defense industry.

F35, manufactured by Lockeed Martin based in Texas, and Assault Amphibious Vehicles for the Marines, manufactured by BAE Systems based in Northern Virginia — Japan is planning to purchase them. The Japanese government also plans to buy Global Hawks made by Northrop Grumman. Also, it is developing two Destroyers with Aegis Radar System and the missile defense system. Foreign Policy says that they are made by Lockeed Martin.

We are completely used! When will we stop being their ATM machine?

And as the Third Armitage Nye Report that I introduced this morning clearly stipulates, the national security bill, the war act, restart of the nuclear plants, TPP, the Act on the Protection of Specially Designaated Secrets, the Three Priniciples on Trensfer of Defense Equipment and Technology, the Basic Act on Cybersecurity, the Development Cooperation Charter, all of them are requested by the US. When will we stop being a US colony. It must be now.

This war act, this American act by the US, for the US, the defense industry act for the defense industry by the defense industry, I am absolutely against it, there is no way other than scrapping it. Period. With these words again, I would like to end our questions.